Wednesday, February 24, 2010

GradingKazoo Books, an independent bookstore owned by Gloria Tiller in Kalamazoo, Michigan, has invited Switchgrass Books, the fiction imprint of Northern Illinois University Press, to participate in a publishing discussion for local authors entitled “You’ve Written a Book—Now What?” The event will take place at the Portage Public Library on March 3, 2010 at 6:30 p.m.

Director of Switchgrass Books, J. Alex Schwartz, will inform authors about the publishing process: what an editor looks for in a submission, how to write an appropriate proposal letter, what to expect from a publishing contract, etc. “I love to talk about publishing and am excited to offer advice to local authors who are ready to learn how to polish their manuscripts, submit them to a publisher, and reach the goal of a signed contract,” Schwartz commented.

Also participating in the event will be Ann Arbor author Donald Lystra, who published his debut novel Season of Water and Ice with Switchgrass Books in 2009. Lystra will discuss his experience as a first-time author and help the attendees understand what to expect from a publisher. Lystra said, “Though I had published short stories, I learned that maneuvering in the world of publishing where a novel is concerned is much different. The process can be challenging but rewarding, and I look forward to sharing this with other authors.”

The event is free and open to the public. Local authors interested in learning how to publish their books should attend this unique event in which they can learn from a publisher and a local published author. “Attendees should find the evening to be incredibly informative, whether they have only considered publishing a book or have already been published. Having insight from a regional publisher and a recently published author will be invaluable,” stated Tiller. If you have questions, please contact Gloria at Kazoo Books at gloria@kazoobooks.com.

Monday, February 22, 2010

New Issues Poets David Dodd Lee and Mary Ann Samyn will present readings from their work on Saturday, March 13,2010 at 7 p.m. Broadsides featuring the poet's work will be created by KBAC artists. The broadsides and other works by the poets will be available during the event for sale and signing. Broadsides from other "Poets in Print" events and other book arts creations are also available for sale. This event is free and refreshments are served. Doors open at 6:30.

David Dodd Lee is the author of The Nervous Filaments (2010, Four Way Books), a book of Ashbery erasure poems, which is forthcoming from Blazevox, and Orphan, Indiana, which is forthcoming from U. of Akron Press. His four other books of poetry include: Downsides of Fish Culture (1997, New Issues), Arrow Pointing North (2002), and Abrupt Rural (2004, New Issues).

Mary Ann Samyn is the author of several collections of poetry, including Beauty Breaks In (New Issues, 2009) and The Boom of a Small Cannon (Dancing Girl Press, 2010). She teaches in the MFA program at West Virginia University where she is also the Bolton Professor for Teaching and Mentoring.

This in from Dr. Russ Bodi (Owens College):
"One of my favorite roles as director of the Ohio Valley Shakespeare Conference’s 2010 meeting is to invite colleagues to attend our annual conference. I am happy to turn to my neighbors to the north with a special invitation to join us a short distance over the line. This year's event will take place from October 14-16th at nearby Owens College in Toledo, Ohio. Perhaps your critical work or that of your WMU colleagues lies within the purview of this year’s theme, “Shakespeare’s Loose Ends.” Within the Loose Ends topic, there are many “undecidable” aspects of plot, character, staging, response, and editing that stimulate our discussions and often lead to calculated conjecture. We are already seeing a variety of interpretations of this year's conference theme.
The Ohio Valley Shakespeare Conference, formerly the Ohio Shakespeare Conference, has been the site for some notable critical work from our profession’s best critical voices. David Bevington, Rebecca Bushnell, Laurie Shannon, Peter Holland, Lars Engle, Ania Loomba, Leah Marcus, and Paul Yachnin are a few of the speakers at recent conferences. Past topics have included the Nature of Shakespeare, Post-Colonial Shakespeare, Shakespeare and the Law, Working Shakespeares, Appropriating Shakespeare and last year’s Shakespeare on Screen. We usually draw a large number of scholarly presenters from the Midwest, as well as from across the nation.
This year’s plenary speakers will be Katharine E. Maus and Matthew Wikander, both of whom are enthusiastic about sharing their work with us. In addition to the conference sessions, we will also feature the National Players’ version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in a live performance on Friday night, and the Toledo Repertory Theatre will present a staged reading of A Merry Regiment of Women on Thursday evening. We also plan to have our annual banquet, all for a very affordable conference fee.
I hope that your participation in this year’s event will draw other scholars and students from Western Michigan University. Deadlines for submission and information about the student essay contests are attached. While our call for papers is already posted in Shakesper and other online and print media, I would appreciate it if you would post and/or circulate the attached cfp. You can also visit our website
http://www.marietta.edu/~engl/OVSC/."

Sunday, February 21, 2010

The Age of Sex: A Two-Day International, Interdisciplinary Conference on Child and Adolescent Sexualities

Organized in co-operation with Monash University, Australia and GREP (Graduate Research and Education Programme in Gender, Culture and Identity), University College Dublin and University of Limerick, Ireland.

This will be a two day conference focusing on often contentious issues such as paedophilia, child pornography, child sexuality, pederasty, teen sexuality among other topics relating to the study of child and adolescent sexuality. Day one of the conference will feature keynote addresses and discussions of trigger papers which will be distributed to all conference participants in advance. Day two will consist of a postgraduate workshop divided into three thematic strands (literature/film; criminology/Law; sociology/psychology) where postgraduates will deliver short (15 minute) presentations on their current research and receive feedback and advice in a friendly and supportive atmosphere.

*CALL FOR PAPERS: Open Forum/Workshop for Postgraduates in the Fields of Child and Adolescent Sexuality*

This session is designed to be a forum where scholars in the early stages of their careers will have an opportunity to present brief papers (10-15 minutes) that are relevant to the different strands of the conference as well as receiving feedback from the keynote speakers and the other conference delegates.

Dr. Ilana Nash has published her essay "The Innocent Is a Broad: American Virgins in a Global Context," in the newly-released collection _Virgin Territory: Representing Sexual Innocence in Film_, ed. Tamar Jeffers McDonald (Wayne State University Press, 2010). Nash's essay analyzes four comedic films -- two from the World War II era, and two from the Cold War era -- to demonstrate how American films have used the virginal female body, during periods of global conflict, as a symbol for national ideals and national safety.

Saturday, February 20, 2010

We [i.e., the organizers of Motivate Michigan] recently launched a project that may be of interest to you, to members of your family, and/or to your friends. It is an online competition for college students to earn one of ten scholarships. The objective is to uncover a “Big Idea” for economic improvement in Michigan – The project is called “Motivate Michigan”.

We are asking college students to submit their ideas at www.MotivateMichigan.org. The ideas will be judged based on three criteria: creativity/innovation; feasibility for implementation; and, potential impact on the State economy. At this time our sponsors include: Comerica Bank, The Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC), Meijer Stores, and the Presidents Council, State Universities of Michigan. CBS and the Free Press are our media partners. And, the project has been endorsed by Governor Granholm, the Detroit Economic Club, Automation Alley, and others. We are also accepting additional sponsors to help us reach our goal of a $100,000 scholarship fund. Please let me know if you are aware of any organizations that may be interested in becoming a sponsor of this exciting project.

And here is an interesting twist… In partnership with the student that wins the competition, CIBER will develop the implementation plan and feasibility analysis for the idea, and present the idea to a leader in the State for funding and support. We want to help transform the winning idea to “reality”.

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Monday, February 15, 2010

Janet Heller will read her poems "Losing My Father," "On Eating Raspberries from Our Garden in January," and "Snow Woman in Portage" at Artifactory, a special event on February 28, 2010, at 1:30 p.m. at the Kalamazoo Valley Museum. The poems were chosen by Curator Tom Dietz in a local competition for poems that are about Kalamazoo and also relate to items at the museum. Elizabeth Kerlikowske coordinated the contest.

£3,000 IN PRIZES. The winners’ work will be published.The essay can be on any aspect of the lives and works of John Keats, P B Shelley, Mary Shelley, Lord Byron and their circles. It should be of 2,000 - 3,000 words, including quotations. Preference will be given to entries showing originality of thought and written in a clear and accessible style. All sources must be acknowledged.The poem (which may be a narrative) must be original, unpublished and not a parody. It should focus on the theme ‘Ice’. It may be of any length up to 50 lines.
Judges’ Panel Chair: Jack Mapanje is a distinguished Malawian poet, linguist, editor and scholar. Formerly Head of English at Chancellor College, University of Malawi; he was also Poet in Residence at Dove Cottage, Senior Lecturer in English at Newcastle University and now lives in York. He has published five books of poetry including Beasts of Nalunga (2007), which was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for best collection. For Of Chameleons and Gods (1981) he was imprisoned for four years by Hastings Banda of Malawi.

Other conditions of entry:
1. Three copies of your entry should be sent to KSMA Competition Secretary, School of English, The University, St Andrews, KY16 9AR, Scotland. Please enclose an SAE if you want your entry to be acknowledged. Copies of entries cannot be returned and no correspondence will be entered into. For all further information regarding shortlists, date of Awards, etc., please see the KSMA website, www.keats-shelley.com
2. All entries must be received by 30 June 2010. Prize winner and a runner-up in each category will be notified in August. There will be a presentation ceremony at the British Academy, London, on 13 October 2010. The winners will be announced at that time on the KSMA website, www.keats-shelley.com
3. You may enter both categories. There is a fee of £5 sterling for a single entry, plus a further £5 for each additional entry in either category up to a maximum of two poems and two essays. Payment must be enclosed, made by cheque, postal order or international money order in favour of the Keats-Shelley Memorial Association, or by sterling bank notes. All first-time entrants who are not already Friends of the KSMA will become Honorary Friends for one year.
4. All entries must be typed or word-processed on A4 or foolscap paper, and attached with a paper clip to a typed sheet giving the following: your name, address, a contact telephone number, the title of your essay or poem, and how you heard about the prize. Your entrance fee should also be attached. Please do not use staples, and kindly ensure that your name does not appear on the entry itself.
5. Essays and poems must be in English and your own original and unpublished work, and must not have been submitted to us in a former competition. Copyright remains with you as author, but your entry will be deemed to give consent to first publication in journals nominated by the Keats-Shelley Memorial Association.
6. The submission of an entry will be deemed to indicate full acceptance of the above conditions of entry to the competition.

The Alpha Nu Pi chapter of Sigma Tau Delta, the international English honor society, now extends free membership to all students who are eligible to join, paid for by the Sigma Tau Delta fund. Please support Sigma Tau Delta and outstanding WMU students by donating to the fund.

The Sigma Tau Delta Fund was launched in 2009 to make membership free to every student who meets the honor society's academic standards, beginning with the 39 members of the Fall 2009 induction class and continuing for all new inductees hereafter. Funding for free membership comes from the College of Arts and Sciences and the Department of English at WMU, as well as from the generous donations of faculty, staff, alumni, and other friends of Sigma Tau Delta.

Sigma Tau Delta recognizes outstanding academic achievement in English studies by undergraduate and graduate students. The WMU chapter has twice been named an Outstanding Chapter and has been recognized as “one of the most active and vital chapters in the country” by the parent organization.

Students who qualify for membership in Sigma Tau Delta must pay a one-time fee of $50 ($37 to the national organization and $13 to the local chapter at WMU), which entitles them to lifetime membership.

In the past, a number of qualified students have had to decline membership because they could not afford this fee. In response, we launched the Sigma Tau Delta Fund, with the goal of offering free membership to every student who meets the society's academic standards, beginning with our Fall 2009 induction class and for all new inductees thereafter.

Your tax-deductible donation of any amount will help fund these lifetime memberships. If we are able to amass a substantial endowment that guarantees funding for all memberships for the foreseeable future, we hope that donors will want also to support the academic activities of WMU Sigma Tau Delta students, such as helping to fund student trips to present work at the national conventions, where WMU students have earned national recognition for their scholarly and creative work. At this time, students spend much of the spring semester each year raising money for this purpose.

Contributions can be made online to the WMU Foundation by clicking here. They may also be mailed in to the Foundation or the Department of English, and WMU employees can opt for payroll deduction. Please designate your gift to the Department of English -- Sigma Tau Delta. If it is not designated to Department of English -- Sigma Tau Delta, your gift will not be directed to Sigma Tau Delta.

Please visit the Sigma Tau Delta website to learn more about ΣΤΔ at Western Michigan University and about the achievements of our members on the WMU campus and beyond.

Membership in Sigma Tau Delta opens an impressive range of exciting new opportunities to students. With your support, the sky is the limit for these outstanding students.

Thursday, February 4, 2010

The Graduate Center for Research and Retention is sponsoring a special presentation for graduate students preparing to submit HSIRB protocols to conduct research for the thesis, dissertation, or special project.

This is an excellent opportunity for students about to embark upon research or for those still at the course work/comprehensive examination stage who are interested in exposure to the IRB process. In addition, the presentation is of value to new faculty, preparing to serve as advisors or committee members, and also to more seasoned faculty who simply want a refresher. Everyone is welcome.

The program is free of charge and registration is easy and quick. Visit the following URL and simply register on-line: www.wmich.edu/grad

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Since completing my PhD In English at WMU I have been teaching literature and fiction writing at James Madison University. Two excerpts from my novel, In Guatemala, have been published in Flyway and Passages North. "Live Bait," a short story, is forthcoming in the Spring 2010 edition of Yale Anglers' Journal.

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

I'm just about two days out from beginning of my deployment. I'm pretty much packed and ready to go. I figured this would be a good time to express my deep gratitude to the entire department -- not only for the amazingly generous gifts of the Kindle and Amazon gift cards (extra thanks to Karen and Gwen for organizing it), but also for the outpouring of friendship and concern. That's something that I'll definitely take that with me (along with the Kindle).

Once I get settled in, I'll drop the department a note with my contact information.

Like last year the Great Department of English swiped two of the six annual College of Arts and Sciences Faculty Achievement Awards: The award in Professional and Community Service goes to Lisa Minnick, and the award in Research and Creative Activity to Katherine Joslin.